Cultural Advisors

Cultural Advisors (CAs) are student leaders on campus who live in the residence halls and work with residents and residence life staff to make the halls are safe, welcoming, and supportive communities for all students. Cultural Advisors promote learning and understanding across differences, share information about campus resources on diversity and inclusion, and facilitate connections between and among residents. They also coordinate the weekly SpiderNights program which occurs most Saturday nights.

The halls which have a CA in 2018-2019 include the following: Gray Court, Jeter, Lakeview, Lora Robins, Marsh, Moore, North Court, South, Thomas, Westhampton, and Wood.

The Head Cultural Advisor is Cory Schutter, the Coordinator of SpiderNights is Jonathan Rodriguez, and the Coordinator of SpiderNight Publicity is Freddy Espitia.

General Application Information

Cultural Advisors (CAs) are recruited and selected early in the spring semester for the following academic year. Rising sophomores through seniors are eligible to apply. Applicants must have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or better, and have no disciplinary history. Students are encouraged to apply regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual identity, gender identity, faith tradition, ability status, or other areas of difference.

The position requires that students return to campus a week before the start of the semester for training with Common Ground. Cultural Advisors must also attend regular meetings for supervision and on-going training. While there is no compensation for the position, benefits include extensive skill development in the areas of diversity, community-building, and event planning, collaborating with and learning from your fellow advisors, ready access to University administration, and the opportunity to become change agents on campus.

CAs are given a programming budget for their residence halls. There will not be any personal cost to the Cultural Advisor to participate in any aspects of the training or program. The commitment is for one year, although students who will be abroad for one semester may apply. More application information is available here.

SpiderNights

SpiderNights is a program designed by the Cultural Advisors to give students different late night activities most Saturday nights. Usually starting at 9:00 pm and lasting until midnight, events have included pizza and game nights, Bingo, coffeehouse open mic nights, carnival nights, video game tournaments, arts and crafts, movie nights (like Harry Potter and Rocky Horror Picture Show), and trips off-campus to trampoline parks, and indoor rock-climbing. Activities are always advertised on the dflyers in the Commons and via Facebook events, and Instagram. All students are welcome and the events are always free!